‘You don’t coach forever’: Goorjian wants Kings job to be his last
Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian hopes his latest appointment can be the last of a career that has featured six NBL championships and a first Olympic medal for the Boomers.
Goorjian, who led the Kings to three consecutive championships between 2003 and 2005, said he would coach until he ran out of energy, calling the opportunity to return to Sydney on a three-year deal “beyond my wildest dreams”.
“I’m going to coach until I’ve lost my passion,” Goorjian, 71, told this masthead. “But … you don’t coach forever. It’s coming, but I’m just living in the moment, and I hope I keep this [job] for a while.”
Goorjian ended his first stint with the Kings in 2008, months before the NBL stripped the team of its licence. He had another year left on his contract but knew the team was in trouble.
Goorjian then moved to Melbourne to coach the South Dragons to an NBL championship in the 2008/09 season, their last before also falling into administration.
The one-time NBL player felt he had no option but to leave Australia after the Dragons were dissolved, calling the NBL a “basket case” at the time. He spent the next decade in China, which was the booming overseas market of the 2010s.
After two seasons at the Illawarra Hawks, one in Hong Kong and a second stint with the Boomers, Goorjian returns to a vastly different Kings organisation.
The Kings – backed by an outspoken ownership group led by Paul Smith that also includes Australian basketball royalty Andrew Bogut and Luc Longley – make no secret of wanting to be the best organisation outside the NBA.
